Validation Of Potential Combat Predictors In Overseas Maneuvers

"The purpose of this study was to furnish infantry, artillery, armor, and combat engineer research information for use in selecting new combat arms aptitude areas based upon the validity of ACB [Army Classification Battery] tests and a group of experimental predictors. Testing was accomplished in the 10th Infantry Division at the start of the training cycle for 1642 enlisted men later trained in combat arms military occupational specialties. Criterion ratings of estimated combat potential were collected after overseas maneuvers, one year after testing"--Preliminary page.

"The purpose of this study was to furnish interim combat engineer branch research information for use in selecting new combat arms aptitude areas based upon the validity of ACB [Army Classification Battery] tests, form 20 information, and a group of experimental predictors. Testing was accomplished in the 10th Infantry Division at the start of the training cycle for 71 enlisted men later assigned to combat engineer branch"--Preliminary page.

Literature pertaining to prediction of enlisted military job performance, 1952-1980, was reviewed. The review excluded studies in which training performance or reenlistment is the criterion. Aptitude was the most frequently used predictor and supervisor ratings the most frequent criterion. Relationships among classes of criteria and between predictors and criteria were examined. Major classes of criteria were job proficiency, job performance, and suitability to military service. The following conclusions are supported by the review: (1) For the great majority of jobs, job knowledge tests appear to provide the most practical method of objective measurement; (2) Because job sample tests are very expensive to construct and administer, their use is not practical unless the job is extremely costly or critical; and (3) Use of supervisors' ratings as the only measure of job performance should be restricted to jobs for which motivation, social skill, and response to situational requirements are the only attributes worth measuring. Two promising approaches to improved prediction are the selective use of miniaturized training and assessment centers and the use of self-paced training performance as a predictor. The review includes abstracts of the studies that were reviewed.

"To develop for use in classifying enlisted men to the combat arms new aptitude areas incorporating measures of what the combat man will do as well as what he can do ... A long term program of research involved the experimental testing of approximately 5000 enlisted combat arms personnel-- about 2000 in actual combat, 1000 in Arctic maneuvers, and 2000 in both a training and a later overseas garrison-maneuvers situation"--Preliminary page.